Groundling

The title of the exhibition came about when the artists were talking about potential overlaps between their practices. All three are interested in human relationships to place - to the earth beneath our feet. Their works could be situated within a subtle category of ‘landscape’, an approach of making art that began with prehistoric cave drawings and runs through to the present day. Working with earth pigments, capturing sensory experiences of the outdoors and creatures who live there, or examining the discord between our species and others.

Groundling refers to creatures that live on or near the earth; a fish at the bottom of the sea, a creeping plant running adventitious roots along the surface of the soil to find a foothold. ‘Groundling’ is also a 17th century term given to members of the theatre audience who stood in the pit below the stage - as ‘uncritical or unsophisticated spectators’.

In the current time of environmental crisis ‘why make art?’ feels like an urgent question. Perhaps some of us are groundlings, unrefined onlookers who have lost the capacity for connection with each other and our surroundings - the water, the air, the land. Perhaps art, both viewing and making, can do many things - foster community, provide spaces for reflection, wonder & awe - giving form to imaginings of a different kind of world.